The last day of 2013 is soon beginning. It was an interesting year for me. I continued working with my biggest musical project - Estonian Folk Orchestra and in January we had the last rehearsals before our Sweden tour and recording session. In February the Sweden tour and recordings of our cd in Stockholm took place and in March we played a concert in Viljandi to celebrate the 5th anniversary of Estonian Traditional Music Center.

During the first half of 2013 I also continued working with my students in Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tartu University Viljandi Culture College and accordion course participants in Sweden. Two of my students in Tallinn took their Bachelor in Music degrees with colorful performances in diploma concerts. In May I had my annual spring accordion party with my course participants in the old fire station in Duvbo, Sweden. I studied ergonomics for the whole 2013-2013 academic year for Helle Axel-Nilsson and got the course done at the end of May! Now I continue working with wonderful Helle under her own Ergoakademi - http://www.ergoakademin.se

In June I finally got time to record a demo to fulfill my long time dream, a solo project with my own music in collaboration with my old musical friends Timo Alakotila and Villu Talsi. June and July were also holiday months with my family in beautiful South and North-Estonia. In August I played a concert with Eeva & Villu Talsi and Estonian Folk Orchestra performed in Viru Folk festival in Käsmu, Estonia. A new spontaneous trio with me, Villu Talsi and Jonas Hjalmarsson had a nice rehearsing time in Viljandi and also performed in Viru Folk festival. We had so much fun playing together that our collaboration is long before over yet.

I celebrated my birthday in Sweden in August with building a new toolshed and renovating the old toolshed to a cosy working space to myself. I also had a wonderful day with my father and my boys in Waxholm near Stockholm.

September brought a small tour with EFO in Tallinn, Kuressaare and Mooste, also in Estonia.

Photo by Irina Mägi

October was quite a calm month, I started working with EFOs cd and visited Harvest Festival in Viljandi where our family finally met the one and only Violons Barbares! My oldest son Leo got to meet his idols and to play some fiddle tunes for them.

In November I had the pleasure to perform at the annual Accordion Festival in the Royal College of Music in Stockholm together with my student and friend Hilde Fjerdingoy.

I also surprisingly started a new collaboration with Chilean musicians from Las Reinetas, joining the three women band as an accordionist named "Rayen" (they can barely pronounce my first name and gave me a new name which means "flower" in Spanish :-)

Cuecas urbanas en Estocolmo. Parallell café .

The end of 2013 was a really productive time for me as besides a new collaboration with Las Reinetas, I started working with a marvelous person and singer Linnéa Sallay.

In December Bartosik/Hjalmarsson/Talsi had two cosy concerts in Stockholm with guest musicians Johanna-Adele Jüssi and Jo Einar Jansen and my son Leo who made his official live performance debut in the Folklorecentrum in Stockholm run by the legendary Izzy Young.

Photo by Johanna-Adele Jüssi

Photo by Matthias Bartosik

I also hosted the annual accordion christmas party in Duvbo and played with small Colorstrings fiddle pupils in the Finnish Institute in Stockholm. I have practiced fiddle myself too and it is great fun to try out some old polskas on the fiddle instead of playing them on my accordion.

We celebrated Christmas with my little family and actually with lot of music all the time. I changed from accordion to piano and to harmonium to play Christmas tunes from all overthe world. Sometimes it is lovely to just relax and play for in fun and I managed to get my father and husband to join me in Silent night :-)

In 2014 Estonian Folk Orchestras cd Imemaa-Wonderland will be released and I am playing more concerts with Bartosik/Hjalmarsson/Talsi trio. I am also going to record and perform my own music with Tuulikki Bartosik Trio, continue working with my students in Estonia and courses in Sweden. I plan to continue running with my Vibram Five Fingers to get my body and mind going.

Be honest to yourself and theworld, enjoy the time with your loved ones and take care of you and our beautiful planet Earth! HAPPY NEW YEAR!